Meeting Minutes
Faculty Senate Minutes
September 26, 2001
Present:
Jim Acheson, Thomas Brann, Kathrine Carter, Steve Cohn, Eric Conrad,
Richard Cook, Scott Dunning, Richard Eason, Bill Farthing, Ed
Ferguson, Alla Gamarnik, Paul Grosswiler, Brett Hall, Don Hayes,
Dianne Hoff, Peter Hoff, Dana Humphrey, Keith Hutchison, Edward
Jadallah, John Jemison, Melvin Johnson, Joseph Kelley, Robert
Kennedy, Carol Kim, Dennis King, Roger King, Irv Kornfield, Judy
Kuhns-Hastings, Diana Lawson,Ngo Vinh Long, Daniel Lux, John Maddaus,
Chuck Maguire, Ivan Manev, Stephen Marks, Jim McClymer, Kim McKeage,
Charles Moody, Suneeti Nathani, Howard Patterson, Bryan Pearce,
Glenn Reif, Robert Rice, Linda Rottman, Douglas Ruthven, Christa
Schwintzer, Frederick Servello, Phillip Silver, Owen Smith,
Stylianos Tavantzis, Sarah Vidito, Jim Warhola, Dave Yarborough,
Ryan Harvey
Absent:
David Batuski, Douglas Bousfield, Dan Dwyer, Charles Forshee, Sandy
Gardner, Diane Haslett, Mike Howard, Richard Jagels, Harvey Kail,
Dorothy Klimis-Zacas, Phil Locke, Kathleen March, Ali Ozluk, Dan
Sandweiss, Bruce Segee, Andrew Thomas, Roy Turner, James Wilson
I. Welcome and Signing in:
The meeting was called to order at
3:15 with a period of silence in memory of Shawn Walsh. President of
the Senate, John Maddaus, welcomed members of the senate and asked
that each member introduce him/herself.
II. Approval of Minutes from May
9th meeting:
John Maddaus asked that someone
make a motion to adopt the minutes of May 9th. Steve Cohn moved that
the minutes of May 9th be approved. It was seconded byMinutes were
unanimously approved.
III. Announcements by President
John Maddaus:
A) There will be a Board of
Visitors meeting on campus Thursday and Friday October 11 and 12.
The meeting will take place in the Gallery Room of the Memorial
Union at 1:30 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. The Senate needs representatives at
that meeting. Sign up if interested.
B) Funeral Mass for Shawn Walsh
will be held Saturday, September 29, 2001, at St John’s Catholic
Church at 207 York Street, Bangor. Friends can pay their respects to
Shawn Walsh and his family on Friday September 28, 2001, from 10
a.m.-6 p.m. also at St John’s in Bangor.
C) A photographer is present at
today’s meeting to take pictures for President Peter Hoff's
breakfast presentations. Copies may also be used in the future for
other purposes.
D) Please update the Membership
list being circulated and sign the roll call sheet.
E) John Maddaus reviewed the
jurisdiction, committee structure, and procedures of Senate for new
members.
F) The Senate FirstClass conference
folders have been set up with John Maddaus and Rose Weller as
controllers. All members are contributors and all users are readers,
with two exceptions: 1) Committee folders are restricted to
committee members only. 2) Board of Trustees folder is open to all
members as contributors.
Questions to Administrators
Ques. By Christa Schwintzer: Where
are we in fixing the library steps and Maine Center for the Arts?
Mark Anderson, Interim Chief Financial Officer, said a number of
roofs were being repaired on the Maine Center for the Arts building
this summer. Roof repair is continuing to ensure that there is no
additional water damage. The University is also looking for a
contractor to remove the bug-infested rug but has had difficulty
finding one because the job is too large for a small contractor and
too small for a large contractor. As far as the Library steps are
concerned, he would like to do some research work on that issue. As
he understands it, separation of storm drainage from the roof from
the sanitary sewer is currently being done. This is located in the
area of the steps but is a separate project will have to be done
before the steps will be repair. President Hoff indicated that
quotes to rebuild the library steps ran between $700,000 -$800,000
and we do not have available funds for this project. President Hoff
said the university had hoped to include expansion of the library in
the bond before the voters this November. If so, replacement of the
steps could have been part of that project. Unfortunately, the
library expansion did not get included. Current hopes for correcting
the situation are to get the library expansion included in the next
bond to be put before the voters or to get private donors to
contribute the money needed to replace the steps.
Ques. By Owen Smith: Can you give
us an update on the Memorial Union project? Mark Anderson said, as
many of you have seen, the bookstore is largely completed and opened
to the public with the exception of the Atrium. Work on the new
dining area is also near completion with the exception of the
kitchen equipment. Dining services will be ready for opening after
the students return from fall break. Ques: By Owen Smith: What are
the particular problems facing these projects? President Hoff
mentioned that problems with a project of this size and scope are
not unusual and that we would soon be moving on to the next phase of
the project, that of renovating the old portions of the Building. He
also mentioned that we have numerous other projects at the
University of Maine and they are all going well (inferring that the
problems with the Union are not general or not related to the
university procedures but specific to this project). Ques. Why do
they keep building and breaking down the steps on the new wing of
the Union? Ans. Mark Anderson: The contractors did not do it right
so the University is making them do it over until they get it
correct. Ques. Steve Cohn: What is the University doing about the
lack of parking space?
mentioned that he had asked Executive Assistant Scott Anchors to
monitor parking availability by periodically walking around campus,
and that Scott had reported spaces were generally available
throughout the day and week. He pointed out that a year ago we
opened up 600 new spaces, and since that time the level of
complaints about parking had dropped to very few. He also pointed
out that one or two lots are currently occupied by construction
crews as staging areas, and as soon as they are done, even more
spaces will open up. President Hoff went on to say that the basic
issue was that the university has about as much parking as it can
hope to have as long as we charge $25-$35 per year for decals
(compared to a national average of over $200 per year.) The
university does not rely on tuition, mandatory fees, or taxpayer
dollars to support parking--the parking operation needs to pay its
own way, and therefore it can only construct as many parking spaces
as parking fees will pay for. The often-suggested "parking garage"
would cost between $12,000 and $18,000 per space to construct, and
therefore could never be constructed with parking decal fees at
their current levels.
Ques. Knud Hermansen: When is the
handbook review going to be completed?
Ans:Doug Gelinas: We are working on
it and hope to have something done soon. The goal is to finish it
this semester, hopefully.
V. Committee Members' Reports:
University Environment Committee:
Judy Kuhns-Hastings
Committee members are:
Thomas Brann, Alla Gamarnik,
Douglas Bousfield, Richard Chapman. The committee needs someone for
education. Dianne Hoff volunteered. The committee needs a student
representative from student government.
Constitution and Bylaws Committee:
Robert Rice
Knud Hermansen volunteered to be
parliamentarian. Other committee members are: Glenn Reif, Richard
Eason, and Jim McClymer.
Research and Public Service
Committee: Keith Hutchison
Not filled
D) Finance and Institutional
Planning Committee: Christa Schwintzer
Committee members are: Ed Ferguson,
Glenn Reif, Bruce Segee, Mark Anderson, ex officio. The committee
needs someone from BPPH
Academic Affairs Committee: Bryan
Pearce
80% of the committee is constituted
with Ed Jadallah, Kathrine Carter, Steve Cohn and Dan Dwyer as ex
officio. It needs someone from BPPH.
F) Committee on Committees: Howard
Patterson
Committee members are: Carol Kim,
Ivan Manev, Chuck Maguire, and Dennis King. Howard Patterson
reported that he is looking for members of the senate to serve on
the President’s Committee.
G) Library Advisory Committee:
Kathleen March
March is absent.
H) General Education Review
Committee: Owen Smith
The committee is working on shared
meeting hours.
Committee Members: John Maddaus,
Kim McKeage, Kathleen March, Dorothy Kimis-Zacas, Knud Hermansen,
Charles Slavin, Douglas Gelinas.
I) TBA Interdisciplinary Program:
Jim Warhola,
Jim Warhola requests for members.
J) Board of Trustees
Representative:
Dana Humphrey reported that the
faculty and student representatives met with the executive committee
of the Board of Trustees and discussed the following issues:
1. desirable characteristics of the
new chancellor;
2. policies related to emergency
situations such as student, faculty, and staff who are reservists
and are called up to active duty;
3. desirable characteristics of our
graduates and how to measure if the characteristics are achieved.
Suggested that measurements be taken several years after graduation.
(for general education the representatives referred the BOT to the
outcomes of the Bethel II summit)
4. methods to enhance faculty
retention.
On the official BOT agenda the
following issues were of interest:
Resolution to support the
University College initiative which is intended to facilitate
delivery of courses so that all degrees are offered through the
seven campuses;
Approval of $10-million to purchase
Enterprise Resources Planning System that will integrate financial,
admissions, Human Resource Information System, development office,
and student records within a single integrated software package.
Ques. What is the system’s policy
on students being called into the military? Dana Humphrey: Cannot
answer that. Knud: The Federal Government has a statute in place for
students.
Ques. Alla Gamarnik: What is being
done to retain faculty? Dana Humphrey: This is only a discussion at
this point--no action from the BOT.
VI. Old Business:
No old business
VII. New Business:
John Maddaus announced that in view
of the urgency of making a statement on the events of 9/11/01, the
Executive Committee had issued and distributed to faculty the
statement below which was brought to the Senate to be affirmed.
Steve Cohn moved and Roger King seconded the statement and it was
passed unanimously.
A. Statement on the events of
9/11/01
Faculty Senate Executive Committee
9/19/01
The tragic events of September 11,
2001 have shocked and saddened all of us. Many of us know people
among our families and friends who have been touched directly by
these events. As we seek to recover emotionally from these events,
we need to keep several thoughts in mind:
The University of Maine is a
diverse community in many ways, including among its members people
of various ethnicities, religions and national origins. Acting on
prejudice and stereotypes is never a humane way to deal with a
crisis of any kind. In this particular crisis, we urge that members
of the university community understand the painful circumstances
that events have created for people who share a common ethnicity,
religion or national origin with the people who have been identified
as terrorists. We urge all members of the university community to
keep in mind that such commonalities do not mean that such
individuals share specific beliefs and inclinations to action. The
stereotype of the Muslim or Arab religious fanatic or terrorist is
precisely that. This stereotype is untrue of the vast majority of
Muslims and Arabs, whether residing in this country or abroad. We
urge members of the university community to behave toward Muslims
and Arabs in our midst with the same respect as anyone else.
Any international event of this
magnitude has a complex history, involving social, economic,
religious, cultural, political, ideological and other elements. As a
university community, we are dedicated to the exploration of our
world, including such aspects of human experience. We urge students
and faculty across the university community, regardless of
discipline, to seek understanding of the many aspects of human life
that have come together in this event. Furthermore, we urge that
people seek to understand the many diverse perspectives on such an
event that result from differences in life experiences among people
of different backgrounds. We hope that an international and
intercultural dialog can arise, drawing on the many human,
electronic, published and other resources available to us, that will
lead to greater understanding of our fellow human beings.
B. Prioritizing topics for
2001-2002
John Maddaus announced that the
Executive Committee was seeking advice from the Senate on priority
issues for the 2001-2002 academic year. The list of issues was
circulated at the Elected Members Committee meeting, and additional
copies were distributed for other Senate members to complete and
return. This was a discussion item only not a motion.
Steve Cohn urged the Senate to
address Math & Writing competencies of undergraduate students.
Ques. Thomas Brann asked that
administrators explain the topics listed under "Other possible
topics for consideration (administrator suggestions)"
1. Faculty work loads. Provost
Kennedy explained that faculty work loads became an issue when
considering the incentivized budgeting process last spring. The
commission on incentivized budgeting will continue to examine this
issue. Christa Schwintzer, chair of the committee on Finance
Institutional Planning, is a member of that commission.
2. AA degree as equivalent to
general education? Douglas Gelinas explained that students
transferring from a community college expect that they will have met
general education requirements through their AA degree. Because of
the specificity of our requirements that is often not the case.
We would like to review individual
colleges and make articulation agreements with each individual
college as appropriate.
3. "Coaches" as a faculty category,
rather than coaches as "lecturers": Provost Kennedy explained that
under union contracts coaches are considered un-represented faculty
for some sports and represented faculty for other sports, and are
assigned to the faculty category of lecturer. In fact, many coaches
do not have any teaching responsibilities and many exceptions are
made to the requirements for lecturers. Creating a separate faculty
category of "coach" would eliminate the necessity of making so many
exceptions. Ques. Owen Smith: if coaches are called faculty will
they fall under the same standards as regular faculty? Ans: Douglas
Gelinas; Coaches already have faculty status, but they are different
since they are not tenured.
4. Academic Space and Facilities
responsibilities and structure: Douglas Gelinas explained that there
are two ad hoc committees that deal with the assignment of space and
facilities renovation. He hopes to create a single committee with
guidelines to work with Anita Whiry on these issues.
Adjournment:
Meeting adjourned at 4:30 P.M
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